The Ancient Art Of Decoding Hieroglyphics
Symbols represent a concept and were first used by cavemen for recording events and some-times, their thoughts.
Cave paintings are the oldest known form of symbols and were originally very simple and easily understood. They slowly developed into depicting much more complex information and progressed from the walls of cave into carvings in rock and stone.
Pictographs were the next form of symbols to develop and they represented concepts, objects and activities by illustration. More advanced forms known as “hieroglyphs” refer to the characters made by graphical figures, be it animals or objects.
Sumerians invented picture-hieroglyphs that developed later into cuneiform, the earliest known pictographic writing system in the world adopted by other cultures.
Being able to decipher and read hieroglyphs provides fascinating insights into the land, lore and minds of an ancient people. Understanding their hiero-glyphs illuminates meaning and removes some of the mystery behind their ancient languages and inner thoughts.
In one such example, written across the wall of the cave somewhere along the steep banks of the Dead Sea, were the following symbols:
It was considered a unique find at the time. The writings were said to be at least 3,000 years old by some estimates.
The piece of stone where it was engraved on the cave wall was carved out and carefully removed, brought to the museum, and eminent archaeologists from all over the world came to study the ancient symbols months on end. They then held a huge meeting after several conferences had taken place to discuss the possible meaning of the markings.
An Esteemed Estimation?
In this meeting the President of the society pointed to the first drawing and said,
“Evidently, this is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them.”
“Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the Earth and food didn’t grow, they seek food from the sea. The last symbol clearly appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews.”
The audience applauded enthusiastically.
Bringing The House Down
As the applause died down, an old Jewish scholar in his 90’s stood up slowly in the back of the room and said,
“Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left…… It says: ‘Holy Mackerel Dig the Ass on that Chick.’ “
Writing has come along way from its early scribbles on the wall of a cave. The purpose for writing though, probably remains the same as it was then – to record, pass and share information. But some things apparently, never change!
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